It has been shown that the COVID-19 pandemic affected some agricultural systems more than others, and even within geographic regions, not all farms were affected to the same extent. To build resilience of agricultural systems to future shocks, it is key to understand which farms were affected and why. In this study, we examined farmers’ perceived robustness to COVID-19, a key resilience capacity. We conducted standardized farmer interviews (n = 257) in 15 case study areas across Europe, covering a large range of socio-ecological contexts and farm types. Interviews targeted perceived livelihood impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on productivity, sales, price, labor availability, and supply chains in 2020, as well as farm(er) characteristics and farm management. Our study corroborates earlier evidence that most farms were not or only slightly affected by the first wave(s) of the pandemic in 2020, and that impacts varied widely by study region. However, a significant minority of farmers across Europe reported that the pandemic was “the worst crisis in a lifetime” (3%) or “the worst crisis in a decade” (7%). Statistical analysis showed that more specialized and intensive farms were more likely to have perceived negative impacts. From a societal perspective, this suggests that highly specialized, intensive farms face higher vulnerability to shocks that affect regional to global supply chains. Supporting farmers in the diversification of their production systems while decreasing dependence on service suppliers and supply chain actors may increase their robustness to future disruptions.

研究表明，COVID-19 大流行对某些农业系统的影响比其他系统更大，即使在地理区域内，也并非所有农场都受到相同程度的影响。为了增强农业系统抵御未来冲击的能力，关键是要了解哪些农场受到影响以及原因。在这项研究中，我们研究了农民对 COVID-19 的感知稳健性，这是一种关键的抵御能力。我们在欧洲 15 个案例研究地区进行了标准化农民访谈 ( n = 257)，涵盖了广泛的社会生态环境和农场类型。访谈针对的是 COVID-19 大流行对 2020 年生产力、销售、价格、劳动力可用性和供应链以及农场特征和农场管理的生计影响。我们的研究证实了早期的证据，即大多数农场没有或仅受到 2020 年第一波大流行的影响，而且这种影响因研究地区而异。然而，欧洲有相当一部分农民表示，此次疫情是“一生中最严重的危机”（3%）或“十年来最严重的危机”（7%）。统计分析表明，更加专业化和集约化的农场更有可能受到负面影响。从社会角度来看，这表明高度专业化、集约化的农场更容易受到影响区域到全球供应链的冲击的影响。支持农民实现生产系统多样化，同时减少对服务供应商和供应链参与者的依赖，可能会增强他们对未来破坏的稳健性。